Nawazuddin Siddique pan-India commercial release

Ashim Ahluwalia’s much awaited next, Miss Lovely, starring Nawazuddin Siddique and former Miss India, Niharika Khan is gearing up for a commercial release with more than 400 prints.

After hitting the theatres in India on January 17, the film which premiered at Cannes and won the best film award at the 14th Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI) will be releasing in the US in March, 2014.

Divulging on the scale of release of Miss Lovely BL Gautam who is distributing the film under his banner Easel Films, “We are looking at nationwide release and will cover all the major territories including the North Eastern states.” Gautam attributes the positive response from exhibitors and multiplexes to the changing times and emergence of independent cinema in a very strong way. “Indie cinema has come of age in India, it seems, and is crying for a separate room. These films need right voices, and not empty noise to reach out to their audience. Everything from marketing to the screens needs to be apt for these small gems to make some money.” He states.

Talking about the association with Miss Lovely, Abhishek Gautam from Easel Films adds, “This is the kind of gritty, edgy and brilliantly made movie that youngsters today like. They have had enough of the make believe, fake world in our usual movies. This is why we at Easel wanted to be a part of this.”

The co- distributor Sunny Khanna from White Lion says, “Initially, when we were planning the release of “Miss Lovely” we were sure of going about with just 225-250 screens. But after seeing the overwhelming response from the multiplexes, theatre owners, exhibitors and distributors pan India, we are looking at 400 plus screens and a decent number of shows.”

He adds, “This is the same response movies like LSD ( Love, Sex Aur Dhokha ), B.A.Pass, The Lunchbox, Ships of Thesues has got from trade and exhibitors. We strongly feel that they are better judge as all these films has performed exceedingly well at the box office. The size of audiences has grown for good content. We are sure that cinema lovers will love it for sure.”

Miss Lovely is the first hindi feature film set in the lower depths of Bombay’s “C” grade film industry and follows the devastating story of two brothers who produce sleazy horror films in the mid-1980s. The directorial debut of Ashim Ahluwalia which is produced under his home banner, Future East stars Anil George, Zeena Bhatia and Menaka Lalvani in prominent roles.